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The Omega Glory...

Given that the reason those duplicate Earths showed up in the first place was so existing sets could be used on the cheap - and those sets are American - this is hardly surprising.
I'm sure they had access to props from "China" and "Arabia" in some warehouses. Not sure where the exteriors of The Omega Glory were filmed, but it wasn't Mayberry.

And since it is completely impossible for those duplicate Earths to just arise spontaneously - violating all laws of probability - then there MUST be another explanation for how they came about.
I'm fond of worlds from alternate realities slipping into our universe
 
That's pretty sad. It was an American TV show. What is it about that do you find so offensive?
It's nothing against America. I like the place. But I find the trope a weak writing point, sort of the same way the Chicago gangster approach was just as irritating ( but at least they provided a "reason" for having a duplicative culture.) But This episode is unwatchable to me... sorry.
 
It's nothing against America. I like the place. But I find the trope a weak writing point, sort of the same way the Chicago gangster approach was just as irritating ( but at least they provided a "reason" for having a duplicative culture.) But This episode is unwatchable to me... sorry.

No reason to be sorry. I feel sorry for you to not be able to enjoy the fun.
 
Where is Omega IV?

I assume that the roman numeral IV or four stands for the planet's orbital order around it's star, being the fourth planet out from the star, as Mars is the fourth planet out from the Sun, also known as Sol, and thus is sometimes called Sol IV in science fiction. So this implies the system contains is an Omega I, an Omega II, and an Omega III, in addition to Omega IV, and of course there is no way of telling if there are any planets beyong Omega IV in the system.

Omega is a letter in the Greek alphabet. The 24 letters in the Greek alphabet are: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, and omega.

There are dozens of other alphabets on Earth, each having a different number of letters. There could easily be about a thousand letters in all the true alphabets on Earth. And there are many other writing systems on Earth, and so there should be at least tens of thousands of letters and letter equivalents in those writing systems.

But of course even hundreds of thousands or a million letters would be a drop in the bucket when it cam to designating the hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy.

So I think that the Omega in Omega IV is only part of the star's designation.

For example, the star could be the omega, or 24th, star - in some sense - among the stars in a particular sector. If the sector is Sector 1313, for example, the star would be Sector 1313 Omega, and the planet would be Sector 1313 Omega IV. And possibly Sector 1312 also has an Omega star, Sector 1312 Omega, Sector 1314 has an Omega star, Sector 1314 Omega, and many other sectors also have stars that include omega in their designations.

And possibly in the episode the Star's designation was something like Sector 666-Omega, and the planet's designation was thus something like Sector 666-Omega IV, and in the episode it was shortened to Omega IV to make it easier for the actors to say.

Or possibly the star is listed in a star catalog, perhaps called the Cochrane Catalog, and that catalog is divided into subsections using the Latin and Greek alphabets, and the stars in the subsections are further identified by numbers.

Thus the Cochrane Catalog could have stars with designations like Cochrane E-824, or Cochrane Catalog Lambda-7284, or CC U-813842, or C Omega-9137, etc., etc.

And possibly in the episode the full designation of the star was something like CC-Omega-185634, and the planet was thus something like CC-Omega-185634 IV, and it was shortened to Omega IV in the episode.

Anyway, IMHO many of the star designations in Star Trek should be shortened versions of the "real" long and complex star designations "actually" used by Starfleet and the Federation.
 
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Or then the place is part of a well-known constellation, and our heroes and villains, having been assigned this constellation as their patrol area, simply omit the constellation name and go straight for the star identifier.

Say, the constellation could be a tight asterism such as Scorpius, and the star is Omega Scorpius, surrounded by dozens of other Scorpius stars. The heroes have just left Beta Scorpius and are now supposed to be surveying the inner planets of Omega Scorpius before moving on to Kappa Scorpius B; at some point, they'll grow tired of saying "Scorpius" and decide that nobody will keelhaul them for dropping it.

Similarly, Ceti Alpha is a shortened form, but this time our heroes drop the star instead of the constellation, because they discuss a "star within a star" - this star (let's say Sigma Ceti) is a wide binary or whatever, with Alpha, Bravo and perhaps also Charlie and Delta stars to it, and this is the distinction the heroes bother to make. Dropping "Cetus" might not be sensible, as this constellation is not a tight asterism...

Catalog numbers are fine and well for explaining some of the more obscure Trek designations. The Greek letters might well be assigned a "classical" constellation role, though, while unrecognizable names not marred with strings of numbers could be assigned to be futuristic proper names of stars or, more usually, planets (Sherman's or Dytallix, say).

Timo Saloniemi
 
Where is Omega IV?

I assume that the roman numeral IV or four stands for the planet's orbital order around it's star, being the fourth planet out from the star, as Mars is the fourth planet out from the Sun, also known as Sol, and thus is sometimes called Sol IV in science fiction. So this implies the system contains is an Omega I, an Omega II, and an Omega III, in addition to Omega IV, and of course there is no way of telling if there are any planets beyong Omega IV in the system.

Omega is a letter in the Greek alphabet. The 24 letters in the Greek alphabet are: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, and omega.

There are dozens of other alphabets on Earth, each having a different number of letters. There could easily be about a thousand letters in all the true alphabets on Earth. And there are many other writing systems on Earth, and so there should be at least tens of thousands of letters and letter equivalents in those writing systems.

But of course even hundreds of thousands or a million letters would be a drop in the bucket when it cam to designating the hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy.

So I think that the Omega in Omega IV is only part of the star's designation.

For example, the star could be the omega, or 24th, star - in some sense - among the stars in a particular sector. If the sector is Sector 1313, for example, the star would be Sector 1313 Omega, and the planet would be Sector 1313 Omega IV. And possibly Sector 1312 also has an Omega star, Sector 1312 Omega, Sector 1314 has an Omega star, Sector 1314 Omega, and many other sectors also have stars that include omega in their designations.

And possibly in the episode the Star's designation was something like Sector 666-Omega, and the planet's designation was thus something like Sector 666-Omega IV, and in the episode it was shortened to Omega IV to make it easier for the actor's to say.

Or possibly the star is listed in a star catalog, perhaps called the Cochrane Catalog, and that catalog is divided into subsections using the Latin and Greek alphabets, and the stars in the subsections are further identified by numbers.

Thus the Cochrane Catalog could have stars with designations like Cochrane E-824, or Cochrane Catalog Lambda-7284, or CC U-813842, or C Omega-9137, etc., etc.

And possibly in the episode the full designation of the star was something like CC-Omega-185634, and the planet was thus something like CC-Omega-185634 IV, and it was shortened to Omega IV in the episode.

Anyway, IMHO many of the star designations in Star Trek should be shortened versions of the "real" long and complex star designations "actually" used by Starfleet and the Federation.

Or then the place is part of a well-known constellation, and our heroes and villains, having been assigned this constellation as their patrol area, simply omit the constellation name and go straight for the star identifier.

Say, the constellation could be a tight asterism such as Scorpius, and the star is Omega Scorpius, surrounded by dozens of other Scorpius stars. The heroes have just left Beta Scorpius and are now supposed to be surveying the inner planets of Omega Scorpius before moving on to Kappa Scorpius B; at some point, they'll grow tired of saying "Scorpius" and decide that nobody will keelhaul them for dropping it.

Similarly, Ceti Alpha is a shortened form, but this time our heroes drop the star instead of the constellation, because they discuss a "star within a star" - this star (let's say Sigma Ceti) is a wide binary or whatever, with Alpha, Bravo and perhaps also Charlie and Delta stars to it, and this is the distinction the heroes bother to make. Dropping "Cetus" might not be sensible, as this constellation is not a tight asterism...

Catalog numbers are fine and well for explaining some of the more obscure Trek designations. The Greek letters might well be assigned a "classical" constellation role, though, while unrecognizable names not marred with strings of numbers could be assigned to be futuristic proper names of stars or, more usually, planets (Sherman's or Dytallix, say).

Timo Saloniemi

This is how you get Christopher to bang his head on his desk regarding Ceti Alpha (which he insists MUST be said the other way).
 
It's nothing against America. I like the place. But I find the trope a weak writing point, sort of the same way the Chicago gangster approach was just as irritating ( but at least they provided a "reason" for having a duplicative culture.) But This episode is unwatchable to me... sorry.

Oh, I see and agree with the absurdity of it but it is a TV show after all and I tend to suspend my disbelief so I can enjoy the absurdity, lol. I thought it was some anti-America thing; thanks for clarifying.
 
Part of the fun for me, where TOS is concerned, is that anything could happen. The universe was this unpredictably weird and wild place. I think "The Omega Glory" fits perfectly into that universe.

They lost something when Trek became a franchise.
 
I'm fond of worlds from alternate realities slipping into our universe

That one was used for Miri's planet in at least one novel. It would be nice if we didn't duplicate reasons any more than necessary.

Alternate universe hop for Miri
Time/space anomaly for Omega IV
Preserver transplant for New Rome and Miramanee
Cultural contamination for Gangster and Nazi planets

Did I miss any?
 
Or then the place is part of a well-known constellation, and our heroes and villains, having been assigned this constellation as their patrol area, simply omit the constellation name and go straight for the star identifier.

Say, the constellation could be a tight asterism such as Scorpius, and the star is Omega Scorpius, surrounded by dozens of other Scorpius stars. The heroes have just left Beta Scorpius and are now supposed to be surveying the inner planets of Omega Scorpius before moving on to Kappa Scorpius B; at some point, they'll grow tired of saying "Scorpius" and decide that nobody will keelhaul them for dropping it.

Similarly, Ceti Alpha is a shortened form, but this time our heroes drop the star instead of the constellation, because they discuss a "star within a star" - this star (let's say Sigma Ceti) is a wide binary or whatever, with Alpha, Bravo and perhaps also Charlie and Delta stars to it, and this is the distinction the heroes bother to make. Dropping "Cetus" might not be sensible, as this constellation is not a tight asterism...

Catalog numbers are fine and well for explaining some of the more obscure Trek designations. The Greek letters might well be assigned a "classical" constellation role, though, while unrecognizable names not marred with strings of numbers could be assigned to be futuristic proper names of stars or, more usually, planets (Sherman's or Dytallix, say).

Timo Saloniemi

Answering your suggestion about the stars Beta Scorpius, Omega Scorpius, and Kappa Scorpius B. I note that Beta Scorpii is about 530 light years from Earth, Omega I Scorpii is about 423 light years from Earth, Omega 2 Scorpii is about 265 light years from Earth, and Kappa Scorpii is about 480 light years from Earth. So even if the three stars were perfectly lined up as seen from Earth, instead of many degrees of angle between them, Beta Scorpii and Kappa Scorpii would be about 50 light years apart, and either Omega Scorpii would be tens or hundreds of light years beyond. So the Enterprise might visit tens or hundreds of other stars while visiting those three stars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Scorpius

The best choice for having the stars close enough for your suggestion would be a constellation in which the Omega star was in a star cluster with a lot of other bright stars very close to it.

Many but not all constellations have stars with the Greek letter Omega. Some have more than one Omega star, in those cases there is a number, supposed to be a superscript number, after the Omega.

I believe the list of the 39 Omega stars in constellations is:
1. Omega Andromedae
2. Omega1 Aquarii
3. Omega2 Aquarii.
4. Omega1 Aquilae
5. Omega2 Aquilae
6. Omega Aurigae
7. Omega Bootis
8. Omega1 Cancri
9, Omega2 Cancri
10. Omega Canis Majoris
11. Omega Capricorni
12. Omega Carinae
13. Omega Cassiopeiae
14. Omega Centauri (which is actually a globular star cluster)
15. Omega1 Cygni
16, Omega2 Cygni
17. Omega Draconis
18. Omega Eridani
19. Omega Fornacis
20. Omega Geminorum
21. Omega Herculis
22. Omega Hydrae
23. Omega Leonis
24. Omega Lupi
25. Omega Octanis
26. Omega Ophiuchi
27. Omega Orionis
28. Omega Pavonis
29. Omega Persei
30. Omega Phoenicis
31. Omega Piscium
32. Omega Sagittarii
33. Omega1 Scorpii
34. Omega2 Scorpii
35. Omega Serpentis
36. Omega1 Tauri
37. Omega2 Tauri
38. Omega Ursae Majoris
39. Omega Virginis

The modern official list of constellations selected by the International Astronomical Union in 1928 has 88 constellations. Many other constellations were proposed by various astronomers in western civilization and more or less accepted for a while but have been discontinued. It is possible that some of the discontinued constellations had stars with omega designations. Many other cultures had totally different constellations but I don't now if anyone ever gave Greek letter designations to stars in those constellations.

In the Dune series several stars have designations combining Greek letters with the names of exotic and/or fictional constellations: Delta Kaising, Theta Salish, Theta Shaowei, Gamma Waiping.

In Star Trek many stars have been given designations similar to the ones that Bayer gave to naked eye stars, with Greek letters followed by the genitive cases of the Latin names of those constellations, but using the names of constellations which have never been used on Earth.

Some of those names were used as early as TOS and TAS:

Beta Antares in "A Piece of the Action", Gamma Canaris & Epsilon Canaris in "Metamorphosis", Beta Niobe in "All Our Yesterdays", Beta Portolan in "Operation Annihilate!", and Delta Vega in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

My theory is that some distant Earth colony or colonies created new constellations and gave the stars "in" those new constellations Bayer-type designations. And it is possible that every one of those constellations has an Omega star.

The list of those possible new constellations in Star Trek is:

1. Agni
2. Antares (also the name of a real star).
3. Argus
4. Arigulon
5. Ashanti
6. Ataru
7. Balder
8. Berman
9. Bowles
10. Braga
11. Canaris
12. Cassius
13. Coupsic
14. Curry
15. Eminiar. (also the name of a fictional star)
16. Erandi
17. Erani
18. Eridon
19. Hutzel
20. Lankal
21. Laputa.
22. Legato
23. Magellan
24. Mahoga
25. Mees
26. Mynos
27. Nesterowitz
28. Nel
29. Niobe
30. Onais
31. Pascal
32. Penthe
33. Portolan
34. Rana (also the name of a real star)
35. Reilley
36. Renner
37. Shiro
38. Silar
39. Simmons
40. Stromgren
41. Thoridar
42. Vega (Also the name of a real star)
43. Wiltz

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/bayer-names.htm

The only one of those "new Constellations" that has two stars named is Canaris, and that is in the same episode. Thus one might suppose that the number of those new constellations is great enough that it is statistically improbable for stars in the same "new constellation" to be mentioned in different episodes. So it is possible that there are about 100 to 10,000 "new constellations" with possibly 100 to 10,000 stars with Omega designations.

Since the number of stars with Bayer type designations including Omega is limited by the ones in present constellations and by the number of hypothetical "new constellations" in the skies of Earth colonies, Those stars would be only a tiny minority in even the small part of the galaxy that is explored in . Thus it seems likely that the "omega" in Omega IV is part of some catalog designation which uses long,complex combinations of Latin letters, Greek letters, and Arab numbers to designate the stars, and that the complex designation of that star is simplified to "Omega" by the speakers in the episode."The Omega Glory".
 
On Omega IV, for example, not ony would it be equally impossible for an alien world to just HAPPEN to have exact word-for-word copies of the Constitution etc, but the documents we did see, can't be as old as the Yangs say they are. They'd have withered away to dust a long time ago..
^^^
Um, yeah, about that aspect - you realize that given the age of the Com and Yang cultures there on Omega IV - THEY most likely had the ORIGINAL versions of the U.S. Constitution, etc. We here on Earth are the ones 'parallel' to that world as they had it first. ;)
 
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Part of the fun for me, where TOS is concerned, is that anything could happen. The universe was this unpredictably weird and wild place. I think "The Omega Glory" fits perfectly into that universe.

They lost something when Trek became a franchise.

Success is it's own failure when a creator or creative team feeds into it's own fame. Not just for Star Trek, either.

That's why some of the best things are when something is small and struggling, they are really trying to do the best they can. Fast forward to years later when they are a "brand" and through anything on the screen either because of deadlines to create product or hubris that anything with the "brand" will sell, usually a combination of both.
 
Part of the fun for me, where TOS is concerned, is that anything could happen. The universe was this unpredictably weird and wild place. I think "The Omega Glory" fits perfectly into that universe.

They lost something when Trek became a franchise.
To be fair, TOS lost something in the second season when they stopped doing some of the higher concept anthology like episodes and started doing what I call 'just Star Trek' episodes - and that trend continued into the third season.
 
To be fair, TOS lost something in the second season when they stopped doing some of the higher concept anthology like episodes and started doing what I call 'just Star Trek' episodes

I've had that impression about the second season, too. Along with its truly great episodes, S2 has more than its share of episodes that seem more manufactured than inspired. And they're still better than most other television of the period, by a mile.
 
Answering your suggestion about the stars Beta Scorpius, Omega Scorpius, and Kappa Scorpius B. I note that Beta Scorpii is about 530 light years from Earth, Omega I Scorpii is about 423 light years from Earth, Omega 2 Scorpii is about 265 light years from Earth, and Kappa Scorpii is about 480 light years from Earth. So even if the three stars were perfectly lined up as seen from Earth, instead of many degrees of angle between them, Beta Scorpii and Kappa Scorpii would be about 50 light years apart, and either Omega Scorpii would be tens or hundreds of light years beyond. So the Enterprise might visit tens or hundreds of other stars while visiting those three stars.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_in_Scorpius

The best choice for having the stars close enough for your suggestion would be a constellation in which the Omega star was in a star cluster with a lot of other bright stars very close to it.

Many but not all constellations have stars with the Greek letter Omega. Some have more than one Omega star, in those cases there is a number, supposed to be a superscript number, after the Omega.

I believe the list of the 39 Omega stars in constellations is:
1. Omega Andromedae
2. Omega1 Aquarii
3. Omega2 Aquarii.
4. Omega1 Aquilae
5. Omega2 Aquilae
6. Omega Aurigae
7. Omega Bootis
8. Omega1 Cancri
9, Omega2 Cancri
10. Omega Canis Majoris
11. Omega Capricorni
12. Omega Carinae
13. Omega Cassiopeiae
14. Omega Centauri (which is actually a globular star cluster)
15. Omega1 Cygni
16, Omega2 Cygni
17. Omega Draconis
18. Omega Eridani
19. Omega Fornacis
20. Omega Geminorum
21. Omega Herculis
22. Omega Hydrae
23. Omega Leonis
24. Omega Lupi
25. Omega Octanis
26. Omega Ophiuchi
27. Omega Orionis
28. Omega Pavonis
29. Omega Persei
30. Omega Phoenicis
31. Omega Piscium
32. Omega Sagittarii
33. Omega1 Scorpii
34. Omega2 Scorpii
35. Omega Serpentis
36. Omega1 Tauri
37. Omega2 Tauri
38. Omega Ursae Majoris
39. Omega Virginis

The modern official list of constellations selected by the International Astronomical Union in 1928 has 88 constellations. Many other constellations were proposed by various astronomers in western civilization and more or less accepted for a while but have been discontinued. It is possible that some of the discontinued constellations had stars with omega designations. Many other cultures had totally different constellations but I don't now if anyone ever gave Greek letter designations to stars in those constellations.

In the Dune series several stars have designations combining Greek letters with the names of exotic and/or fictional constellations: Delta Kaising, Theta Salish, Theta Shaowei, Gamma Waiping.

In Star Trek many stars have been given designations similar to the ones that Bayer gave to naked eye stars, with Greek letters followed by the genitive cases of the Latin names of those constellations, but using the names of constellations which have never been used on Earth.

Some of those names were used as early as TOS and TAS:

Beta Antares in "A Piece of the Action", Gamma Canaris & Epsilon Canaris in "Metamorphosis", Beta Niobe in "All Our Yesterdays", Beta Portolan in "Operation Annihilate!", and Delta Vega in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

My theory is that some distant Earth colony or colonies created new constellations and gave the stars "in" those new constellations Bayer-type designations. And it is possible that every one of those constellations has an Omega star.

The list of those possible new constellations in Star Trek is:

1. Agni
2. Antares (also the name of a real star).
3. Argus
4. Arigulon
5. Ashanti
6. Ataru
7. Balder
8. Berman
9. Bowles
10. Braga
11. Canaris
12. Cassius
13. Coupsic
14. Curry
15. Eminiar. (also the name of a fictional star)
16. Erandi
17. Erani
18. Eridon
19. Hutzel
20. Lankal
21. Laputa.
22. Legato
23. Magellan
24. Mahoga
25. Mees
26. Mynos
27. Nesterowitz
28. Nel
29. Niobe
30. Onais
31. Pascal
32. Penthe
33. Portolan
34. Rana (also the name of a real star)
35. Reilley
36. Renner
37. Shiro
38. Silar
39. Simmons
40. Stromgren
41. Thoridar
42. Vega (Also the name of a real star)
43. Wiltz

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/bayer-names.htm

The only one of those "new Constellations" that has two stars named is Canaris, and that is in the same episode. Thus one might suppose that the number of those new constellations is great enough that it is statistically improbable for stars in the same "new constellation" to be mentioned in different episodes. So it is possible that there are about 100 to 10,000 "new constellations" with possibly 100 to 10,000 stars with Omega designations.

Since the number of stars with Bayer type designations including Omega is limited by the ones in present constellations and by the number of hypothetical "new constellations" in the skies of Earth colonies, Those stars would be only a tiny minority in even the small part of the galaxy that is explored in . Thus it seems likely that the "omega" in Omega IV is part of some catalog designation which uses long,complex combinations of Latin letters, Greek letters, and Arab numbers to designate the stars, and that the complex designation of that star is simplified to "Omega" by the speakers in the episode."The Omega Glory".


You may have heard this before but it appears you have too much time on your hands my friend! :)
 
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